Thursday, April 13, 2017

New Mexico: Alex Alirez, who starved Hubble to death, has charges dropped again - will face NO punishment for his crimes

NEW MEXICO -- Charges in a high profile extreme animal cruelty case have been dropped again, this time on the grounds of double jeopardy.

The case out of Las Vegas, New Mexico got a lot of attention with the community rallying around Hubble the dog, who eventually died despite desperate efforts to save him.

Hubble the Bull Terrier and several other dogs were found chained outside a home in 2015 without food or water. The dogs belonged to Panchita Alirez and her husband Alexander Alirez.

All of the dogs spent their life chained. Hubble was the worst off. He was severely emaciated, had open wounds, and had maggots covering his body.

Attorneys for the owner, Alex Alirez, claimed double jeopardy. Charges have been dropped and refiled several times.

An attorney says Alirez has already been forced to give up his animals as part of a civil court order, meaning he’s already faced consequences for the case. He argues if Alirez is retried, it would constitute double jeopardy.

According to online court records, a judge agreed last week.

“Jail time would have been nice for these charges, but more than that we wanted a lifetime order that these folks could never own or possess animals again,” Angela Stell, NMDOG, said.

NMDOG is an all-volunteer group that helps in animal cruelty cases. They say they’re angry at the outcome of this case.